Opdimizer Is The First Defense Against Increasing Dim Charges Increasingly, the gap is widening between what shippers expect to pay for parcels and the charges they are surprised to find on their carrier invoices. Why? Because over the last 10 years, explosive eCommerce growth has squeezed parcel carrier capacity. As a result, parcel carriers have put a greater premium on space utilization by lowering the threshold at which shippers must pay dimensional (“dim”) weight rates for shipments that are lightweight relative to their size.

This means that shippers will pay more if they don’t carefully manage shipping cost estimates and packing processes. Pierbridge’s Opdimizer (Op∙DIM∙izer) is a cartonization technology that enables shippers to instantly and more accurately determine the most cost-effective way to pack cartons and reduce, or eliminate, unexpected dim rate charges.

Dim Weight Rating 101 Dim weight is calculated by multiplying the length, width, and height of a package, and then dividing that result by a special number, called a “dimensional weight divisor”, “dim divisor”, or “dim factor”. The shipping cost is priced according to the higher of either the dim weight or the actual weight. FedEx and UPS have both recently announced the standard dim factor for 2017 will be reduced from 169 to 139, making it more likely that shipments will be subject to dim rating.

The US Postal Service applies dim factors to Priority Mail shipments to zones 5 and beyond. Although larger shippers have the leverage to negotiate higher dim factors based on their volume, most shippers, especially smaller eMerchants, can no longer afford to ignore how they pack cartons.

How Opdimizer Saves You Money Opdimizer calculates the most cost-effective way to pack an order, taking into account multiple factors such as order SKU dimensions and weights, available container dimensions, carrier service and dim factors, and packing rules such as % fill, lay flat, don’t pack with, pack alone, and zone picking. Opdimizer returns the best containers to use, rate shops the best carrier services, and provides an image depicting how items should be packed. Pierbridge’s Transtream TMS software integrates seamlessly with Opdimizer, but other shipping systems, shopping carts, warehouse management, or order management system can use Opdimizer’s API to estimate costs in order entry and control packing in fulfillment.

Conclusion There is no doubt about it. Ever decreasing dim factors will continue to result in ever increasing, and often hidden, shipping costs. With more customers expecting “free” shipping, your bottom line will be impacted without cost-effective cartonization processes in place. Opdimizer technology is the perfect solution to help take the guesswork out of cost-effective packing and rating. See the Opdimizer demo and video at www.opdimizer.com.